'Fast & Furious' Screenwriter Talks AI, Genetically Enhanced Villains

By
S.C. Stuart2 Aug 2019, 10 p.m.

In Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Jason Statham and The Rock go up against a genetically enhanced warrior played by Idris Elba. Screenwriter Chris Morgan explains his vision for this iteration and why the popular franchise still inspires him.

(Photo Credit: Universal Pictures)

"Saving the world is easy, but working together is going to be a real pain in the ass."

That's the tagline for Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, the latest iteration in Universal Pictures' biggest global franchise; its eight films have thus far brought in over $5 billion at the box office. Hobbs & Shaw stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw, a British military elite operative gone rogue. This time around,they go up against a new nemesis—Brixton, a genetically enhanced warrior played by Idris Elba—while battling an Earth-ending biohazardous virus.

It's written and produced by Chris Morgan, who's penned all Fast and Furious films since Tokyo Drift. We caught up with him as he took a break from the editing suite at Universal Studios. Here are edited and condensed excerpts from our conversation.

Chris, great to talk with you. What's kept you coming you back to the Fast and Furious universe since 2006, and what was the inspiration behind Hobbs and Shaw? It's just an amazing world. I love the interplay between the characters, [and] the daring action with the cars. But really, it's about the sense of belonging amongst a group of people who really care about each other. There's also a strong sense of heroism which is so great to write for. From Fast Five onwards, we've been talking about what other adventures Hobbs could go on. Then, when I wrote that scene for Fast 8 between Dwayne and Jason in the prison cell, we knew we'd found a great energy to explore. The studio agreed, and told us to go ahead and expand the Fast universe, so we put together a story and I came up with a pitch. And here we are.

Talking of here, we're talking to you many weeks ahead of the film's release, and you're in the editing suite, right? [Laughs] Yeah, that's right. We've been here for I don't know how long. I just took a break to take this call with you. After we wrap up, I'll have to go back in.

Let's cut straight to the stuff PCMag readers want to know, then. Idris Elba's 'cyber-genetically enhanced bulletproof superhuman' warrior called Brixton. What can you tell us about him? We decided to create a villain badass enough to go up against two of the biggest action stars on the planet, our larger than life alpha heroes. We knew it had to be someone so powerful, so bad, so smart that he could be perceived as a real threat. Idris is a friend, and when he came in and really owned that character, we knew it was going to be good.

(Photo Credit: Daniel Smith/Universal Pictures)

Brixton is the name of the historically black British quarter of London. Is that why you decided to call Elba's character that? Yeah, in a way. Once we knew Idris was on board, we ran the idea past him. We wanted a name that worked. He's from London and confirmed it felt right.

As I've covered DARPA, bionic medicine, genomics and cyborgs for PCMag, I was curious about the research that went into the Brixton character. Did you get top secret clearance to hang out in cool military-grade labs? [Laughs] I wish! But, seriously, I've always been really into future tech. My dad was a high school science teacher and fed my fascination right from an early age. I've kept in touch with what's new at the National Academy of Sciences and a billion other websites; attended science salons and gone to plenty of sci-tech presentations.

If you could have any genetically enhanced modifications, like those you assigned to Brixton, what would you pick? Good question. Hmm. Well, as a writer in Hollywood, I'd like to be bulletproof—that would be useful. [Laughs] In terms of AI enhancements? Frankly I'd like them all: faster processing power, more storage, high-level data crunching—yeah, all of them. Why not?

Trailer No. 5 just dropped; talk us through your favorite setup. I do love the truck-chasing-the-helicopter sequence. We were always planning on doing a helicopter/truck finale and it really worked out. For this movie I wanted to add more of a family theme. We have Hobbs take us back to Samoa. Then we get to see Hobbs and his brothers linking all those trucks together and heading out over that mountain. Amazing.

Hanging out in Hawaii must be more fun than days of green screen in a studio somewhere in Burbank. [Laughs] Yeah. You know, for this movie, we got some pretty incredible footage on location. It always blows me away how skilled the drivers are; when you really get into the practical components of the vehicular action it's incredible what we're able to achieve. I do feel grateful to work like this. I have many once-in-a- lifetime moments in my job.

Any favorite anecdotes from working with The Rock? I read that he's worked out twice by the time you surface for a decent espresso. That's so true. But I will say this, when anyone asks me why Dwayne is so popular, I tell them that the guy you see, and like, on screen—that's the real him. There's no layer between his social media persona and the real Dwayne. He has an incredible work ethic, and I feel lucky that we've become such good friends. When we're on set, and hanging out in his trailer—especially when Hiram Garcia, his producing partner, and Ainsley Davies, who runs my production company with me, are around too—and we're trying out lines of dialog, we all just crack up from laughing so hard.

(Photo Credit: Frank Masi/Universal Pictures)

Let's talk gadgets and gear: You've deployed the Gurkha LAPV [Light Armored Patrol Vehicle] in past movies, and I heard that you had to ask McLaren mechanics to reprogram their chips for this one. Seriously? Yes, we did. [Laughs] In the Fast universe, the vehicles represent the soul of their drivers. Hobbs tends to drive more military-type heft vehicles, but Shaw (Statham), he's all about precision, style, and stealth. So we knew we wanted a British car. McLaren was a great choice, and Jason said the brand was important to him too. We then shot the scene with the McLaren 720S in Glasgow. But we needed to trick it out as a stunt car—you know, to get ugly, in the most stylish way. But the car is so well-designed that it countered everything we tried to get it to do. In the end we called in the McLaren engineers and they asked us to describe exactly how each stunt was meant to work. It took a while to figure it out, but finally they cracked the code and made it happen for us. That's a level of dedication you see on these films. It was amazing.

(Photo Credit: Universal Pictures)

Some background on you: is it true you wrote your first script while working in a video store near NASA JPL? Yes! It's not there anymore, but I worked at a video store in La Canada Flintridge, a long time ago, for almost a decade. It was such great training for a screenwriter because I got to really learn what people wanted to see; to talk to them about the videos they were renting and what they thought of them. I would spend hours browsing the aisles, looking at genres, learning about film—the best education, really. It got my brain percolating.

Let's talk about Harrison Ford. You have done your research.

That's why Jason Statham's character is called Deckard [Shaw] after Blade Runner, right? Correct. But, hands down, I have to say it's Raiders of the Lost Ark that has had the most influence on me and my work. It's the perfect example of a great hero journey narrative, with really subtle and clever character arcs.

A seminal film indeed. When did you first see it? My dad took me on a Friday night when it opened at what was then called Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. I didn't have a clue what it was about. Back then trailers gave nothing away. But from the first minute I was hooked. We stayed to watch the next screening back-to-back, in the days when you could still do that.

Sadly, I guess you have to get back to the editing suite now. I do, I really do—we're deep into the final stages before locking the picture and putting incredible care towards making it the best it can be.